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Despite similarities with other Neotropical biomes like the Caatinga (a mosaic of scrub with patches of seasonally dry forest in Northeast Brazil) and Cerrado (savanna in Central Brazil), the Gran Chaco, or simply Chaco, is globally unique. Located mainly in Bolivia and Argentina, with patches in Brazil and Paraguay, the region is the world’s largest continuous dry tropical forest. Snakes must adapt in various ways to survive there. Sheltering from the sun and climbing trees are [...]

Heavy metals such as lead and cadmium are present in batteries, cosmetics, food and other things that are part of everyday life. They are toxic when they accumulate in the human organism, potentially causing several health problems, but detecting them in body fluids requires expensive equipment and a controlled laboratory environment. Researchers at the University of São Paulo (USP) in Brazil have now developed a portable sensor made of simple materials to detect heavy metals in [...]

Ordinary everyday ice, like the ice produced by a fridge, is known to scientists as hexagonal ice (ice Ih), and is not the only crystalline phase of water. More than 20 different phases are possible. One of them, called “superionic ice” or “ice XVIII”, is of particular interest, among other reasons, because it is thought to make up a large part of Neptune and Uranus, planets frequently referred to as “ice giants”. In the superionic crystalline phase, water [...]

For many soccer fans, penalties are moments of utmost tension and potential glory. In 2019, the International Football Association Board (IFAB), which establishes the laws of the sport, decided to allow goalkeepers to put one foot in front of the goal line as a penalty is kicked, giving in to the demands of goalkeepers and overruling fears that referees would have to repeat too many penalties. Previously, both of the goalkeeper’s feet had to be on or behind the line until the moment the [...]

In Brazil, tooth loss is 19% more frequent among Black women than White men. Among women, it is 26% more frequent for Blacks than Whites. Among Blacks, self-defined on the basis of skin color, it is 14% more frequent for women than men. Black women are affected most, whatever the parameter. These are some of the key findings from a survey conducted in Campinas, a large city in São Paulo state, Brazil, set out in an article published in the journal PLOS ONE. The study was part of [...]

Nature in Madagascar, an island off southeast Africa slightly larger than metropolitan France, is so unusual that 82% of its plant species and 90% of its vertebrates are endemic, only occurring there. Living amidst this unique biodiversity is a population so deprived that the country’s human development index (HDI) is one of the world’s lowest, posing the challenge of harmonizing conservation with economic and social development. A portrait of Madagascar’s biological riches [...]

For the first time, scientists at the Federal University of São Paulo (UNIFESP) in Brazil have shown that infection by SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, changes the functioning of host cell RNA. They arrived at this conclusion by analyzing 13 datasets obtained during four studies of viral, human and animal cell RNA. The most recent study, reported in an article published in Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology, examined the epitranscriptome of Vero cells [...]

A Brazilian study shows that the number of fires detected in the entire Amazon region between 2003 and 2020 was influenced more by uncontrolled human use of fire than by drought. According to the researchers, burning of vegetation to prepare areas for pasture and deforestation rather than extreme water deficits were the main cause of fire in most years with large numbers of fires. On average, pasture and other agricultural land accounted for 32% of annual burned areas in the Amazon, [...]

The Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC), a system of ocean currents that carry warm water from the tropics into the North Atlantic and transport cold water from the northern to the southern hemisphere, is a fundamental mechanism for the regulation of Earth’s climate. The conveyor belt has collapsed in the past owing to natural factors. The most recent collapse played a key role in the last deglaciation. AMOC is now threatened by global warming, scientists have shown, and a [...]